I found my new worst enemy last weekend. The trim. I had multiple mini meltdowns over the course of the weekend. Preparing trim to be painted is just SO incredibly unenjoyable in the most extreme sense of the word. To start, my arms were jello from a challenging yoga class. Then I had to sand and I felt like my arms were actually going to fall off. Luckily, I had to pick up a bit more paint (for the backs of the bookshelves) and the paint guy sold me on this product, which cut out the sanding. Sanding might done a better job, but I couldn’t sand any longer.

Much relieved, I wiped it on everything and Dan even helped with the crown molding, so I didn’t have to move the ladder around. Then came caulking. Which is actually not that bad… there is something soothing about filling in gaps that makes you feel good. I became a pro caulker, even though I used a whole roll of paper towels on my journey. Finally, taping. Which takes forever. Cue Sunday at 8 pm and I STILL hadn’t painted any of the trim. Which is disheartening when you’ve spent the majority of your weekend “painting” (prepping) the trim.

Then Dan swooped in, grabbed a paint brush and just went for it, even on parts I hadn’t taped. It made me both incredibly grateful, but also, WHAT at the same time. Why had I spent so much time taping?!?! Word of advice- just learn how to paint without having to tape. It’s all in the brush angle. It also helped that the trim and walls are 2 very similar shades of white… 🙂 We went with White Dove by Benjamin Moore in semi-gloss for the trim and Hale Navy in eggshell for the backs of the bookshelves.

You know you’ve got a keeper when he spends all day building a beautiful fence, braving poison oak, and still maintaining a positive attitude AND THEN comes in and helps with your project too, making you feel 100x times happier. And just to brag a little bit more on him- one of the dogs (we puppy-sat this weekend also) chewed through a lamp cord, but we needed that light to help see where we had missed while painting. So he just sat down and fixed it in a total of 3 minutes. And then went back to work, like no big deal. *swoon* Even though I hated painting the trim, I love having a home to paint and I love the husband I get to share it with. Life is good.

Yellowing trim vs. shiny, new trim color

So fresh and so clean, clean

So friends who foresee trim painting in their future…

Callie’s tips for painting trim if you’re okay with it not being 100% perfect, but close:

1. Use Krud Kutter and don’t waste endless hours on sanding.
2. Do use caulk- I ran out before I finished and was too lazy to go back to Home Depot. The parts with caulk look much, much better. Hoping to caulk the parts I missed later, when I find some more enthusiasm.
3. If you do decide to tape, LET THE CAULK DRY. In the places I didn’t wait long enough, I ended up ripping paint off the wall when I pulled the tape up. Whoops.
3. Learn how to paint without taping. It’s really not super hard, just meticulous. All in the angle and making sure you have the right amount paint on the brush. *Do tape the floors, unless you’re a really big pro* We used frog tape because everyone said it was the best.
4. Make sure you have several rolls of paper towels on hand.
5. Buy quality paint brushes!! And wash them out well after using. Hang bristles down to dry.
6. Feel super relieved that it’s over.

OR

1. Hire a professional.
2. Enjoy.

We finally finished last night and I couldn’t be more pleased. We still have to do the bedrooms & bathroom and this time we are hoping it will be much less time consuming. Yay for learning curves.